On the agenda for Day2 was Central Park. We woke up around 7am, stopped by Ess-A-Bagel, and then started walking the the first of many miles that day. The sun was out and the weather was beautiful. We came into Central Park on the lower right side and started to look for some of the bridges that I wanted to see. One of my favorite movies is Great Expectations, and a lot of the bridges in Central Park were filmed in that movie.

Pine Bank Arch

Greyshot Arch

Bow Bridge

The MallCentral ParkCentral ParkStrawberry FieldsSheep Meadow

After Central Park, we headed to the Upper West Side because there were a few spots that I wanted to see…all from girly movies. The first was Verdi Square, which was where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were walking towards each other in the very beginning of the movie.

Verdi Square

And the steps of the apartment that was used in When Harry Met Sally:

Then we headed to the famous diner that was used in the Seinfeld episodes. We actually ate in here and the food was pretty good.

Tom’s Restaurant

Now that we were at the very top left of Central Park, we went to the North Woods and the Conservatory Garden. Very pretty.

At this point, I was already in pain from walking so much! But we kept going back to down the Upper East Side to Via Quadronno. I had read that they had the best Tiramisu in the city, which was something Michael wanted to eat while up there. It was crowded (and very hot in there – I don’t know if their air conditioning was broken or what). Michael of course ordered Tiramisu and I ordered Panna Cotta. The menu said that it was an Italian challenge to creme brulée (and I love creme brulée) so I decided to give it a try. It came out looking like white jell-o with raspberry cream sauce on top, but it was surprisingly good. The cafe latte was outstanding; the best I’ve ever had. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and get more!

After all that walking, we went back to the hotel to get showers and get cleaned up. It was around 6pm at this point and I thought we should go to the Empire State Building so that we can hopefully get up to the top around sunset. As you can see by the pictures below that it was well after dark before we got to the top. The lines were ridiculous. You would wait in a long line and then ride an escalator to another floor and then there would be a whole room with more lines. Then you would go to another room with more lines. Also, it didn’t help that the people in line behind me kept getting so close to us and hitting my backpack…one of my pet peeves…don’t get in my personal space!!! So, by the time we got up to the top, the pictures weren’t that great because they were through glass windows that were dirty and had the glare of the lights inside. We tried to go to the outside area but it was WAY too crowded to even get a good picture. So, I had had enough and we got out of there.

Empire State BuildingEmpire State Building

After all the day’s adventures we finally made it back to our bunk beds and crashed for the night!